


The Long Game

by jaicubed



Category: Youtubers
Genre: M/M, zeath - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 22:44:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14318682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaicubed/pseuds/jaicubed
Summary: David Dobrik turns the usual fake relationship trope on its head.





	The Long Game

“David just gave us the thumbs-up,” Zane murmured into Heath’s ear. “He’s got the camera out.”

Heath swallowed hard, his eyes flicking over to where David was standing by doors to the balcony. David raised an eyebrow expectantly before disappearing into a crowd of tipsy dancing people.

“You ready?” Zane asked, tipping his head back to down the rest of his drink. 

Heath wasn’t ready.

He was supposed to be, after all these months, all of the set-up. David had planned the whole thing meticulously, saying it was his crowning achievement of pranks. Guinness World-record worthy, even. 

The longest-running, most believable fake relationship ever to be caught on camera.

He and Zane had been desperate when David had proposed the idea. Running short on rent money, their emails from brands dwindling. The extra cash that David had offered them to play along was near life-saving.

There had been no coming out video, no big revelation. Little by little they grew bolder, touching more frequently, looking at each other differently. A carefully orchestrated vlog moment here, a suggestive Instagram post there. Fans started to speculate right along with their friends, until the night Todd had gotten wasted and asked them point-blank, “Look, are you guys fucking dating or not?”

And they had said yes.

Only their families and David knew it was fake. They had been concerned about Hidaya, whose secret-keeping abilities were pretty much non-existent. Fortunately, she’d been too delighted at the opportunity to make gay jokes to spill the beans.

The farce had been incredibly easy. It was their normal relationship kicked up a few notches. It had been awkward, the first couple of times they’d kissed in front of their friends- but now it was like nothing. Routine. 

Their fans were very supportive. Heath’s “boyfriend tag” video got two million views in a week. Zane got more brand deals than ever before. And all they had to do was hold hands and make googly eyes at each other.

The farce had been incredibly easy- until it wasn’t.

It was around month six when Heath realized how comfortable he had gotten. For the sake of appearances, he and Zane had sleepovers almost five or six times a week, usually at his house. When people asked why Zane hadn’t moved in yet, Heath just smiled and said the Zane liked his space. But the more they asked, the more Heath resented Zane’s apartment. And even he wasn’t too oblivious to know why.

He liked cooking for Zane. He liked walking out into the living room in the mornings and seeing Zane’s head sticking out from under a blanket, his hair thoroughly fucked. He liked how Zane’s arm felt around his shoulders when they were out. And he really liked kissing him.

Heath had a sobering realization, on a solo fishing trip during month eight, that he wished their relationship wasn’t fake. He wanted to kiss Zane when it was just the two of them, when no one was watching. He wanted Zane to sleep in his bed, not on the couch. Preferably after fucking.

And sometimes he thought Zane wanted that too. On days when Zane would look at him a certain way, when they were alone. But it was just his imagination.

The acting didn’t become harder after that. It just hurt more. He knew Zane was anxious for the prank to be over; he’d said as much to David when they’d met with him the other day to plan the blow-out. That had stung, right down to his very fucking bones. But it was his fault, really.

He thought about telling Zane. But it turned out that telling Zane he wanted to be his actual boyfriend was pretty fucking hard. A lot harder than pretending to be his fake one.

“Heath, are you ready?” Zane repeated. His face was blank but with a hint of annoyance, one that he had cultivated over the past few days. They had dumped a whole lot of fake tension between them in that time, to make the fight they were about to have more believable. It affected Heath all the same, and he was at least grateful it wouldn’t be too hard to make the tears start flowing later on.

“Yes,” Heath said finally. He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath, and Zane nodded jerkily. 

It occurred to Heath then, right when he was about to do the opposite, that this was the perfect time to tell Zane how he felt. They were about to have a fight anyway, right? 

Heath felt a strange sort of calm come over him. “Actually, no.”

“No, what?” Zane asked, his eyes already searching for David in the room.

“I’m not ready.”

Zane sighed. “David’s expecting us to do this tonight. To finish things up.”

“I don’t care what David expects us to do.”

“What’s gotten into you?” Zane asked, frowning. “You were all ready to go when we were driving here. I know it’s hard to make a scene like this, but-”

“I love you.”

Zane blinked a couple of times, surprised at being interrupted. “...What?”

“I love you. I don’t want to break up. I want to keep doing what we’re doing, but for real.” The words rolled off Heath’s tongue so smoothly that it shocked him. But he supposed he had always been much better at telling the truth.

Ten different emotions flitted across Zane’s face before he simply narrowed his eyes and crushed the cup in his hand. “Stop fucking around. People are starting to leave to go out to the bars. We have to do this in front of a crowd.”

“I’m not fucking around. I don’t want to do this,” Heath said, desperation creeping into his words. “I mean it. I want to be with you.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Heath could see David lifting up his camera towards them surreptitiously, like he thought they were starting to fight.

Heath guessed they probably were, by the look on Zane’s face.

“Is this some new script you’ve conjured up? Because I can’t fucking improvise like you can, Heath. We decided on what we were going to say, so just fucking say it.”

Maybe this hadn’t been the best time.

“I’m not....this isn’t improvisation. I’m telling the truth.” Heath ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He looked at Zane earnestly. “I mean it. And you don’t have to love me back, and you can leave here thinking I’m fucking weird or crazy or gross or whatever, but it’s real. What I feel is real.”

David was inching towards them, but Heath doubted Zane noticed with all of the red he was seeing. Heath saw the horror of realization pass over Zane’s face, mixing in with pure fury.

“This was the plan the whole fucking time, wasn’t it?” Zane spat. “You and David worked something out, didn’t you? Some sort of prank-within-a-prank bullshit. That’s why you always looked at me like... and made me think that maybe-”

Zane was so upset he couldn’t finish a complete sentence, and Heath was now certain that this hadn’t been the best time. What else was Zane supposed to think, with the camera out, in front of all these people?

But why was he so upset? It wasn’t a joke, but Zane was usually pretty great at taking them anyway. Heath could tell, though, that Zane was genuinely hurt. And he felt worse than he’d ever felt.

“No, that’s...no, I promise, that’s not it. David doesn’t know. I’m sorry, I should have said something earlier, but I was too much of a chicken shit, and now it was like the last chance-”

“Shut up, Heath.” Zane’s voice was dangerously low and quiet. “I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of the big ‘humiliate-that-idiot Zane’ moment that you and David obviously want. I’m leaving. And you better not fucking follow me.”

Heath was about to reply when he stopped short. He’d thought Zane was mad because Heath had supposedly gone behind his back. What the fuck was he talking about?

"A humiliate  _Zane_  moment? Why would me pouring my heart- to a group of people that already think we’re dating- be humiliating for  _you_? Is the thought of me actually liking you that embarrassing or something?”

Now  _Heath_  was mad, but he tried to stay calm so as not to give David any interesting footage. No one was even looking at them yet, thankfully.

Was he so horrible that the thought of actually dating him was that offensive? Zane wasn’t homophobic- obviously- so what else was there?

“Don’t play stupid, Heath. I know exactly how you and David thought this would go. You’d make a big scene about how even though this whole thing was fake, you’d fallen in love with me anyway, and then when I said I felt the same way, it would be a big fucking ‘got you’ joke on Zane. Like usual.” 

Heath was momentarily frozen in place.  _When I said I felt the same way._  

Zane tossed his cup into a nearby garbage can and started towards the door, but Heath grabbed his arm before he could get away. Neither of them seemed to notice that David had gone back to the other side of the room.

“You love me?” Heath asked faintly, hardly able to stand with the intensity of emotion running through him. This...this couldn’t be real. David and Zane were playing a prank on  _him_.

“Don’t act like you didn’t know,” Zane sneered, snatching his arm away. “Your little prank wouldn’t have worked if I didn’t, would it?” 

Zane looked totally destroyed. No wonder.

Heath’s arm dropped to his side. He felt numb.

He loved YouTube, and his friends, and LA. He loved his life. But so much if it was staged, that sometimes even reality felt fake. Like his whole existence was just something that David edited in iMovie. Usually it didn’t bother him. But they had gone too far this time, and blurred the lines too much. And now everything was royally fucked up.

Heath didn’t know what to say to make Zane believe he was telling the truth. His heart sank to his toes. What the fuck was he going to do now?

Strangely enough, it was David who saved them.

Heath watched Zane walk towards the door, fear running through him when David approached it at the same time. He sucked in a breath when he saw Zane say something, clearly angry- but he couldn’t tell what.

\--

“Get all the footage you needed?” Zane asked David by the door, his voice hard. “I have to admit, I tried not to make it good for you.”

David was unperturbed by the venomous look on Zane’s face. He shrugged. “Nah, I didn’t film anything tonight. I would’ve stuck around had you guys gone through with the fight, but it looked like you guys had come to your senses instead. And seeing as how that was the entire point of this thing, I’m cool with that.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Zane wanted to rip the little half-smile right off David’s face.

“This whole plan killed two birds with one stone. I knew you guys needed the money but would never ask for it, so this was a great way for me to help out. All of our views went up, too.”

Leave it to David to make everything about views.

“And what was the other bird?” Zane asked, crossing his arms dramatically, although he could feel his anger being replaced by confusion.

“To make you and Heath realize you were super gay for each other, obviously.”

“Heath isn’t gay for me,” Zane blurted out. He thought it was telling that he didn’t try to defend himself first.

David only snorted, turning back towards the door.

“It was a prank. You guys were pranking me,” Zane said, but without much force. 

David turned the door knob and looked back at Zane, shaking his head. “Nah. I think you’re only pranking yourself, bro.”

Zane watched David close the door behind him, his mouth slightly open. 

There had been times, during this whole thing, when Heath had looked at him a certain way, or brushed against him in the kitchen, or held his hand a bit too long. They were moments that were more thrilling than the fake kisses they’d shared for the sake of the video, because they seemed real. And Zane had realized pretty early on that he wanted things to be real. Maybe he always had.

He’d been dreading tonight, but he knew it was inevitable. 

Until it hadn’t been.

He looked back at Heath, who was now sitting on a couch, his head in his hands. Hordes of people left while he stood there, pushing him out of the way until only a few small groups remained. 

David hadn’t filmed. He hadn’t even stayed.

But Heath was still there.

When Heath finally raised his head, and looked over at him, he knew for sure that David wasn’t going to come back in with a camera in one hand and a ‘got ya!’ sign in the other. Heath was just as fucked up as he was.

They had both been loving pranked by the master himself. 

Zane made his way to the couch, gathering his courage. Heath watched him warily, stiffening as Zane sat down next to him.

“I’m sorry,” Zane said awkwardly. “I...I should have believed you.”

Heath’s eyes widened in surprise. “Wow, what did David say to you to make you admit that?”

Zane ran a hand over his face. “What we should have known all along...that he’s always been a step ahead of us. He set us up.”

“Set us up for what?” Heath asked, although Zane could tell he already knew the answer.

“For this.” Zane leaned forward, gripping the back of Heath’s neck and pressing his lips against Heath’s.

They had kissed plenty of times, even with tongue. But never this deeply, or slowly, letting themselves linger. 

“You guys are so cute together,” Gabbie said, stumbling past them. They pulled apart in time for a bit of her drink to slosh on to Heath’s jeans. “I’m going to be a bridesmaid, right?”

“Sure,” Heath replied amusedly, and she beamed at them, making her way towards the kitchen on unsteady feet.

“So...we’re actually dating now, right? For real?” 

The question was a little ridiculous considering the kiss they’d just had, but the night  _had_  been awfully confusing. 

“Yeah,” Heath answered. He leaned into Zane’s side and smiled when Zane wrapped his arm around his shoulders.

“Hidaya is going to be thrilled,” Zane said, almost sadly. “And smug as fuck.”

“I think you’ll get over it,” Heath replied. He ghosted his lips across Zane’s. “Somehow.”


End file.
